My daughter has been prescribed clonidine to help with impulsivity, hyperness and general aggression. She has attention issues too, and i know this drug is not as affective for attention. She has epilepsy though so this was considered the best drug to try even though it is not a first line drug for ADHD.

She is starting at 0.025 mg/night (I think that's right) and see how she does. I know that it can be highly sedating. I'm wondering how this amount can help with daytime issues if she only takes it at night?

My son is extremely sensitive to this drug. He was on it to calm him down, too. Frankly, it knocked him out and he never really got over that side effect. We titrated the dose down to 1/8 of the .025mg tablet and it still makes him exremely groggy. The real downside for us, tho, was it made him mire aggressive.

Now we only use it on an emergency basis to knock him out when he's really out of control.

My son took it because the doctor thought he wasn't getting enough "good sleep" at night, and he said it would help with some ADHD symptoms during the day. He took it at night before going to bed and it knocked him out. He took it for about a month, and slept all the time including during school. He went to bed almost every night by about 7. While he was awake he was very calm, but tired and cranky.

It's actually a blood pressure medicine. My son has low blood pressure to begin with, so we had to keep checking to make sure it didn't get too low. The school nurse checked it every few days.

My youngest takes it. For us it has been a God-send. My son have very bed reactions to the stimulants and even to Strattera. It is the only medication that gives him even a touch of control over his impulsive behaviors.

My youngest takes it. For us it has been a God-send. My son have very bed reactions to the stimulants and even to Strattera. It is the only medication that gives him even a touch of control over his impulsive behaviors.

My difficult child was on clonidine.... we called in "clonk" idine It really clonked him out for the night.

difficult child was in psychiatric hospital for 2 weeks in April with school refusal, agitation, depression and we thought maybe BiPolar (BP). They took him off adderrall xr, prozac, abilify and the clonidine. The psychiatric hospital saw no signs of BiPolar (BP). They wouldn't come out and say it, but I think the "mania" type aggression, weird behavior and self-injury was because he was over-stimulated by the medications.

Instead of clonidine for his aggression and ODD, he is now on tenex 2x a day. The psychiatric hospital said something about the "rebound" of the clonidine being hard on him. Maybe because you take clonidine at night, the "rebound" happens during the day? The tenex seems to lower his general tone. He's not so quick to get frustrated or angry. His ADHD medication is vyvanse. No other medications.

Good luck with the clonidine. We sure liked how it helped him fall asleep, if nothing else.

Steely, what made it a God send for your difficult child? What behaviors did it touch?

I chickenend out and gave her only 1/2 of a 0.025mg tonight...it was probably around .015mg that she got. THat was about 20 minutes ago and she is still up and watching a movie. I know it's a really low dose, but I hate giving it to her in the 1st place.

I'll let you know if she conks. I hope she doesnt though -- we don't really want it for conking out, we want it for calming behaviors. If she can tolerate it at night without too much sedation, we might start in the morning in time.

My difficult child has been on Clonidine for several years now. He takes it for two purposes. He takes .1 mg at night to help with sleep. Without it the guy never sleeps!

He also takes it in the morning and in the late afternoon (.05 mgs) to help with his ADHD symptoms. He can't take any stimulants with his Bipolar so we use the Clonidine. It does help some with those symptoms. They tried a day without it when he was in the hospital and they couldn't believe how different he was without it.

Both my difficult child's take it, difficult child I takes .05 b4 bed and difficult child II takes .05 3 x's a day, it is also a Godsend here, it keeps both difficult child's just under that line of completely out of control. Not to say we still do not have bad days, we do, just nothing too over the top anymore

Well, I did end up giving her the other 1/2 tab 45 minutes after the first. It took her another 45 minutes to fall asleep (which is her normal bedtime these days anyway) so it doesnt appear to have the sedating effect at least at this dose. I should probably try it in the morning and see how she does.

Yes, you could definitely try it the morning as well. It is only knock out sedating at higher doses. For us, difficult child takes it in the morning and night, and it seems to keep his anger and hostility from ever completely going over the top. It is like he has a little bit more glue added to his brain to keep him all pulled together.